SmartStops are risk indicators published for each stock every market day. If your stock falls enough to trigger a SmartStop, it is an indication that the stock is experiencing elevated risk of further decline and you should consider selling, hedging or taking other protective action. SmartStops help investors rapidly respond to deteriorating market conditions enabling them to lock in profits, minimize loss and achieve higher total returns.

Our goal is to publish daily SmartStops for all stocks and ETFs trading on all three primary U.S. exchanges (NASDAQ, AMX and NYSE), and that meet the following criteria:

Trade over $1.00 per share Have average trading volume of 40,000 shares or greater Have a trading history longer than 150 days.

Currently we publish daily SmartStops on over 4,000 symbols. If you have a stock or ETF that you believe meets our criteria and for which we are not publishing a SmartStop, let us know and we will endeavor to add it to our coverage list.

For each equity covered, both an Aggressive and a Conservative SmartStop is published. Aggressive SmartStops are designed to provide maximum downside protection and typically lie closer to the equity price. Conservative SmartStops allow for more price movement resulting in fewer trades and a lower probability of whipsaw. Both signal families intelligently adjust in an effort to keep you in an uptrend longer while exiting early in a down trend. Investors often favor the Aggressive signals for positions they plan to exit soon and for which they will not have time to recover should the equity experience a pull back.

If you are a SmartStops Portfolio Protection Services subscriber, you will receive a portfolio summary email at the end of each market day (currently, US market only). The SmartStops published in the report are calculated for use during the next trading session.

Make sure your spam filter is not putting your SmartStop emails in your spam folder. Add reports@smartstops.net, support@smartstops.net, and alerts@smartstops.net to the approved list in your email settings. Also check your SmartStops profile to ensure we have your correct email. If you are still not receiving your SmartStop emails, contact support@smartstops.net.

Portfolio protection service subscribers choose the size of the portfolio they would like monitored and can save up to 100 symbols in their SmartStops portfolio. As a subscriber, you can also look up SmartStops on additional symbols on demand. The on demand lookups are limited in number each day equal to the size of your portfolio subscription level.

The SmartStop that is published on the “Split Payable Date” for use on the “Ex-Date” will be adjusted to reflect the post split stock price.

Example: XYZ stock is splitting 2 for 1 after the market closes on Tuesday.
Tuesday is the Payable Date. The SmartStop published on Tuesday evening for use
on Wednesday, the Ex-Date, will reflect the split and be split adjusted.

You have observed one of the important features that make the SmartStops strategy so effective. We only want to exit a position when something out of the ordinary occurs, so every day the SmartStops exits are fine tuned to reflect changes in the stock’s behavior. For example, when volatility rises, the stops are deliberately moved further away to keep them outside the expanded range of random normal price movements. If daily price ranges increase we intentionally adjust our exits to keep them from being hit unnecessarily. If the triggers did not expand with increased volatility we would be prematurely exited or “whipsawed” frequently.

There are two possible causes for a big jump in the exit point. Unlike most exit strategies that slowly trail upward at a steady pace SmartStops exits are formulated to keep a close eye on the acceleration rate of the stock. When the stock price accelerates rapidly the exits will also accelerate rapidly so that greater profits can be locked in.
The other cause of a sudden jump occurs when the SmartStops strategy switches. Remember, SmartStops analyzes a variety of strategies before deploying the most appropriate one based on its proprietary analysis. That way you are assured the correct strategy for current market conditions is always in place.

SmartStops are recalculated and published at the end of each trading day taking into account the latest market information. The published SmartStop for any given Stock may be the same as the previous day's depending on that Stock's history and trading behavior.

No. For our sophisticated analysis to be effective the stock must have a minimum level of price and volume. This minimum price is $1, the minimum volume is 40,000 shares of average daily volume, and a history of 150 trading days. Currently we publish SmartStops on over 4,000 stocks and ETFs.

SmartStops is designed to spot unusual weakness that indicates the stock has entered a down trend. There are often bargain hunters and short sellers that are poised to step into a market and buy (cover shorts) after any unusual weakness. The bargain hunters patiently wait to establish positions on temporary weakness and see these unusual dips as buying opportunities. The short sellers see these unusual declines as an opportunity to buy and cover their short sales at a nice profit. The buying action of these two groups will often create a short term bounce in prices that makes you wonder if your exit was a good idea. In most cases the bounce will be short-lived and new lows will follow. However, there are times when the downtrend does not materialize and an uptrend resumes. After exiting a position as a result of a SmartStop being triggered, if it is a core position or one you wish to hold long term, we recommend investors perform their due diligence, review the fundamentals, and make an informed decision taking into account all the opportunities in the market. You can always buy a stock back with the capital you protected.

Chances are that you bought the stock while it was trending downward and are fortunate to be out. The SmartStops strategies are designed to “cut losses short and let profits run”. To protect capital, SmartStops will be closer when the trend is down and to maximize profits the exit will be farther away when the trend is up. You will find that SmartStops works best when you have purchased a strong stock that is trending upward. If you attempt to buy a stock when the price is dropping you are likely to be stopped out quickly. Fortunately, in most cases this quick exit will save you money and keep you from having an even more painful loss. If you find that you are being stopped out frequently, you may be entering at the wrong time for that stock.

No matter what exit strategy you use, nothing can prevent you from being subject to a gap down. If you had set your contingent order with your broker, than that order will be executed at the best available price at that time. That price could be lower than the SmartStop trigger. The good news is that SmartStops helps ensure you are out of a hard-falling stock, as typically Gaps are indicative of further downward behavior.

No. SmartStops does not advise clients on what to buy and can not predict where any particular stock will go. There are a wide variety of factors that can cause a stock to lose value. But by leveraging SmartStops to set contingent sell orders with your online broker, you can rest assured that at least the loss will be limited. Stocks can also “gap down”, and in those situations, your actual exit price may be lower than the triggered conditional SmartStops you placed. We recommend that your contingent exit orders be placed as “market” vs. “limit” orders so that your exit will be implemented regardless of the price. An order to exit at a “limit” price offers no valid protection against a runaway break to the downside.

Simply log on to SmartStops.net, enter a ticker symbol, and view the current SmartStop for that Stock. New SmartStops are published after the close of each market day and posted around 5:00 PM EST for use in placing next trading-day contingent orders with your broker.If you select our Broker Integration service, you can designate the recurring contingent orders you would like to have in place and SmartStops will compile updated orders for you each evening and present them to you for approval and electronic submittal to your online broker. Please note, when submitting contingent orders directly with your broker, we recommend that your contingent order be set as a “market” vs. “limit” order. In other words, if stock XYZ hits $$.$$, sell stock XYZ at market price. Click here for instructions on how to do this on some popular online broker’s platforms. Your broker will also have online information. --%>

No, SmartStops does not suggest what stocks to invest in. SmartStops' mission is to help you maximize returns and reduce risks from the stocks you select by identifying and enabling timely action to sidestep periods of elevated risk.

No, but you can track the underlying security in the My Portfolio screen. Because of the wide swing in option prices (due to the pricing including implied volatility), it may be better to set your option exit strategies based on the price of the underlying stock. In a future version, when Auto-Broker Integration is available, a contingent trigger order for an option position can be sent to the broker each night. If the SmartStops price on the underlying stock is hit the following day, the option order would be triggered to sell. That order would then close the option position at the option market price.

No. If you are a Portfolio Protection Services subscriber, SmartStops monitors your portfolio each day and sends an alert email when any of your positions trigger a SmartStop. Once alerted, you can make a decision to sell or hold. SmartStop users taking advantage of our broker integration service can have contingent orders in place with their broker and have them automatically updated each day to reflect the latest published SmartStops. If you are a SmartStops user but your broker is not yet a member of our broker integration offering you will need to review the newly published SmartStops each market day and manually update your contingent orders with your broker.

Information and consistency is key to maintaining effective downside protection. We recommend users review their SmartStops daily emails and the status of their portfolio positions.

Yes. If you are a Portfolio Protection Services subscriber, your SmartStop portfolio will be continually monitored. If any of your positions fall enough to trigger a SmartStop, a SmartStop Risk Alert will be emailed to you notifying you of the SmartStop trigger event.

Once an equity has been identified as being in an elevated risk state, SmartStops publishes Normal Risk trigger prices. These trigger prices are set above the current trading level of the equity and calculated such that if hit, would be a sign of strength and an indication that the risk state has returned to normal.

No. SmartStops does not tell you what stocks are good or bad or are high risk or low risk. SmartStops aims to identify periods of abnormal for each equity. The selection of stocks to own is entirely up to you and you should seek professional advice and do your homework before deciding what stocks to buy. However SmartStops provides a valuable service in letting you know when a stock that you purchased has entered a temporary period of abnormal price weakness and is likely to decline further (elevated risk state). The SmartStops Normal Risk Alerts inform you when the previous period of unusual weakness and Elevated Risk has ended and the stock's price action has returned to normal.

Not necessarily. The Normal Risk signal means that the abnormal price weakness has ended but there may be some “normal” price weakness from time to time. The stock is most likely to go sideways or continue upward after a Normal Risk signal. If the stock displays any abnormal price weakness a new SmartStops Elevated Risk Alert will be signaled.

We are not trying to generate entry signals. We are identifying periods of Elevated Risk. Once an equity enters a period of Elevated Risk, we begin publishing Normal Risk Price Triggers that if hit would be a sign of strength and an indication that risk has returned to normal for that equity. Once an equity returns to a state of Normal Risk, we cease publishing Normal Risk Triggers until once again the equity enters a period of Elevated Risk.

They are very effective at making sure that major upward trends are never missed. However they are not effective at generating a buy signal at the bottom or lowest price available after an exit signal. The SmartStops Normal Risk Alerts always occur after a sufficient period of strength has signaled that abnormal price weakness is no longer present. There are many entry-oriented services and many useful technical indicators that might help you to enter closer to the bottom after a period of weakness. SmartStop Normal Risk Alerts are not intended to do that.

If you took no action based on the previous aggressive Elevated Risk signal then you can ignore that signal. However the Normal Risk Alert signal can be viewed as good news because it indicates that some short term weakness that might have caused your long term position to decline temporarily has now ended.

Yes. For a stock that has been in a prolonged downtrend the Normal Risk triggers often separate quite a bit from the previous close requiring significant strength to trigger. The Normal Risk Triggers typically occur much quicker for a stock that has not experienced as much of a sustained price weakness.